Context sensitive hotkeys

[sam_large]

Add the functionality to bind more than one action to the same keyboard shortcut

e.g. For Edit Poly\Bridge you have to set up multiple shortcuts depending on whether you are in edge or face mode. It would be great if we could keep a set of shortcuts for edit poly mode, another set for the material editor etc.

Doing so would allow users to set up more functionality in the same area of the keyboard and not have to worry about remembering every single possible combination.

[brentscannell]

Hmm quite an interesting idea...I immediately thought of some of my game setups where I have some major differences in my key bindings based on context. I will see about moving this to "Future Consideration" status but I'd love to see what others think about this. 

[brentscannell]

Hi @sam_large

We are doing some related work in this area, and we're kind of at the point where we're trying to come up an alternative way to solve this problem that still addresses this particular problem, without breaking flexibility to assign different shortcuts to similar actions within the same context. We're not sure if the majority actually want that flexibility, but that's how it's built now.

If we, for example, allowed you to see similar commands across different sub-contexts at the same time, and perform you hotkey assignments that way..would it be interesting? A classic example would be to look at the Edit Soft Selection command, see listed in 10 different contexts, and be able to change it's hotkey assignment in a single shot without having to find it/change it independently within each of those 10 contexts?

[brentscannell]

Hi @sam_large

I may have read through the initial idea a bit too quickly and I wonder if you could give a bit more context behind the use case you outlined with Editable Poly->Bridge command? When you say that you have to set up multiple shortcuts depending on if you are in edge or face mode, for example, I get a bit lost. I'm only seeing one bridge command in the Editable Poly context. In addition, 3ds Max. In addition, I'm not sure I understand the core of your proposal versus what 3ds Max offers in the product today. Today, you can set up "Control+B" to do one command when in editable poly, and use the same "Control+B" in material editor for a totally different command.

[dswahn]

Perhaps I can add some input here.

I have always found that commands are context sensitive in relation to what "Group" they are assigned to. Maybe there could be some way to manipulate "Group" for commands.

I have always felt that when defining Macroscript, it would be extremely useful to be able to define "Group" even for scripts, but I guess that is a different request.

[Intuos5]

@brentscannell

If I may add to this: having tried out Blender recently, I think it is a nice example in the way it handles context sensitivity. For example its outliner (Scene explorer) is seen as different context, therefore show/hide layer, create new layer and move/ merge objects & layers can all be tied to simple single key hotkeys, move to layer becomes 'M' and does not require two handed keyboard input.
Similarly, in the Blender's sculpting workspace, brush commands override the general 3D viewport commands, where 'F' toggles brush strength, instead of Front View. Moreover, if I leave a key untouched, such as 'V' for Views, I can reuse the hotkey to cycle views from a pie menu the way it was set up in the viewport. Basically it allows for reusing hotkeys throughout the program, since each context indivually requires less keys to be used. Each of its menus (that are not associated to toolbars) are called "Editor Types" and are considered as seperate contexts by the software. 
I've created a seperate idea for this here. 

Regarding your point for changing similar commands in one go, it may be possible to ctrl or shift select multiple commands in the hotkey editor and 'link' them so you can change the shortcut for multiple commands at once.

E: In order for Max to know the contexts, perhaps selection of layers in the Scene explorer should retain top level and therefore be the primary context to be able to perform subsequent object selection in the viewport > press the Scene explorer's hotkey > cancel scene explorer selection to exit out of its context. This would close the gap between ease of access of layer editing like it is found in Autocad or the way it can be achieved in Rhino through custom command aliases, without losing out on modeling efficiency.